Horseback Riding

Whenever Nora Jane sees her cowboy boots, she says she wants to ride our horse.  Then she says she needs to call Nate and Brooke (because she knows they are the ones that will take her for a ride).  So then I usually let her call and leave either Nate or Brooke a message, saying she wants a ride.  Well this last Tuesday, Uncle Nate called to invite Nora Jane and Tucker to come over and ride the horse!!  Nora Jane was sooooooo excited....to wear her cowboy boots.  (am I proud it all starts with shoes....YES!) :)

Being that Nora Jane is terrified of our dog...I wasn't sure how she would do with the horse, but it turns out, she loved it!  I'm so glad!

Thanks Uncle Nate and Aunt Brooke!

Memorial Day Weekend - St. George

Our first outing on the boat this year, was in St. George over Memorial Day Weekend.  Amy and her friends were down there already, and so they came out on the boat with us Wednesday, before heading back home.  Then Friday, our friends the Green's came down and stayed through Monday.  I was not quite as on top of packing as I usually like to be, which made it a little more stressful than anticipated getting packed up and on the road on Tuesday.  But once we were down there, it was just soooo relaxing.

Some highlights were:
  - We bought a new ski to train the kids on.  Its a "U" shaped ski with bindings, and then a tube you blow up that goes all around it.  So the kids get the feel of standing up, when the boat starts pulling them, and if they fall off, like Tucker did once, they get used to floating out in the water, while we come back to get them.  Tucker loves it!  We did force Nora Jane out on it, and she wouldn't ever stand up and was just mad at us....maybe next time.

  - Probably more of a "lowlight"...the boat got broken into, while parked in front of the St. George house, which we thought was in one of the safest neighborhoods down there (mostly older retired couples live there).  They stole 4 of our inside speakers and that was it.  Not sure why they didn't take life jackets and skis and wakeboards, or the more expensive tower speakers...must have just been quick drug money.  Whoever did it, cut themselves and bled on the seats.

  - Sweet Graydon was awesome on the boat for his first (and second) time.  He just slept.  Also, on this trip at 2 months old, he started sleeping all through the night and has ever since.  He'll sleep anywhere from 9:00-11:00 pm to 6:00-7:30 am.

  - Hanging out with our good friends Kelley and Jeramy and their kids.  The kids all get a long so well, and it was just a lot of fun!  Jeramy and Daniel took the kids out on the boat on Saturday, while Kelley and I and our two babies stayed home, relaxed, went to lunch and shopped.  It was perfect!  Thanks again for coming guys!

Sam

Aiden

Emi

Tucker

Aiden, Sam and Tucker

Tucker's Spring 2011 Soccer Season

We put together a fun team with kids in our new neighborhood, all Tucker's age, for soccer this Spring. (Maddie, Jack W., Jack B., Tristan, Winston and Joshua)  I wasn't able to go to most of the games, because the first one was the Saturday after I had Graydon, and it stayed so cold for so long this spring, that I couldn't bring Graydon to the games.  So Daniel had to take him.  I'm very proud of how well Daniel handled his frustration with Tucker this year, but we couldn't figure out why Tucker wasn't playing harder, since he had a good season last spring and scored goals at pretty much every game.

Finally, the last game of the season, it was warm enough for me to come. I decided to have a talk with Tucker before hand to try and motivate him to play harder.  Earlier that week, he got a cap gun from a friend who couldn't make it to his party, and he had used up all the caps.  So I told him if he would play really hard and aggressive this game, he didn't even have to score, just show us he was trying had, we would go buy him some caps after the game.

Look how red in the face...he played soooo hard!!

Finally! A Goal!!

So happy and proud of you Tucker! Off to buy some caps for your gun!

Tucker's 5th Birthday Major Award!!

Here is Tucker's reaction to his new motorcycle!

This is him riding the next day.  He did way better than we thought, just because Daniel was so excited for Tucker to have a motorcycle, we thought he'd end up being too nervous to ride, but we were wrong! He loves it and wants to ride it all the time!

Tucker's 5th Birthday! (Part 2)

For Tucker's friends party the theme was DC (as in Dyrdek Company by Rob Dyrdek, the skater) We just had a party here at the house, but we rented a blow up slide. Eight 5 year olds was a little more out of control than I anticipated..so there aren't a lot of pictures. I am particularly proud of pulling off the DC cake that Tucker had requested, thanks to my Cricut that Daniel got me for Christmas. :)